Recently I was struggling to stay motivated in my English practices. I'm convinced the tougher barrier in language learning ins't grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation, but keeping motivated. The reason is because, as every learning process, language learning requires time. If you have patience and constancy, you will be able to overcome any obstacle. Therefore, the key of this process is maintaining the constancy. Obviously it is much harder than looks like. They say that last around three months to build a habit, but your brain feels as it lasts three years unless you deeply enjoy the process. It's not that hard to find pleasant materials on your native language, because this is already part of your life inside your culture, so it's natural. However, you can't say the same if you're trying to do it using a language that you struggle to understand. Because of that, you have to look to your deepest inner of yourself and find something you love so much that you can't just help be absorbed by that. It's a personal journey actually. That's why there isn't a general method that works for everyone. People are different, so they require different approaches. Well, what I did? My aim was to improve mainly my listening skill, so I thought a podcast was a good idea. Podcasts are flexible, thus I could adapt it to my routine (adapt is usually easier than creating). So I started listening to podcasts every morning while I was washing the dishes (habit creation strategy). Then I just tried one or two episodes of several podcast and I just stop when I found one that I fall in love, and this one was Fall of Civilizations. I'm not sure why I love ancient history so much, I just do. Maybe it's because I feel like I'm reading a novel about distant worlds, because ancient cultures are so different, but actually they lived on the same planet as us. I think this is breathtaking. Bring this text to an end (finally), this journey allowed me to rediscover the reason why I decided to study History 15 years ago. I was passionate for ancient history, but during my course I came across different subjects and I followed different paths since then. However, my old passion was there as a spark just waiting for a fresh wood to burn.
Hi Glauber -- just wanted to say that while it was easy to understand everything, you say some things differently than a native person would. I didn't correct your use of commas but you use them too often. You can google when to use commas or something like that. I think you will sound more natural the more you listen to the podcasts and also if you read more... Have fun staying motivated!
Great text! I also agree, motivation is a huge part of learning a foreign language. Using your passion for ancient history to learn English is an amazing idea. Keep it up :)
Thank you @Halley! Sometimes it's hard to adapt my writing from Portuguese to English, mainly when it comes to comma rules. I'll try to keep an extra eye on it. Thank you.
Thank you for your feedback, @Lily 20!
Really interesting and great choice of Podcast. It's one of my favourites too.
It might help to break this much writing into two paragraphs. The sentence "Its a personal journey..." might be a good point". You could also change the emphasis to show you are starting with a new point so; "Actually, it's a personal journey."
Hey @DanD! Thank you for your feedback. Glad to hear you like Fall of Civilizations as well.